Get Even More GQ This Month

Sonny Vaccaro Rages Against The Machine He Built

You may not know Sonny Vaccaro's name, but if you're wearing sneakers, you know his work. After inventing the Dapper Dan Roundball Classic--the first national high school All Star game--Vaccaro became a consultant for Nike in 1977 and immediately changed the fledgling company's fortunes. The rest is history. All of it—college coaches with million dollar deals, high schoolers with hundred million dollar deals, signature shoes and the summer basketball circuit. It's all Sonny.

**

Nowadays, Sonny is more known for his involvement in another court. Teaming with Michael Hausfeld and Ed O'Bannon, they successfully sued the NCAA in 2014 for an athlete's right to profit from the use of their likeness, specifically (in this case) college hoops video games. All of this and more is covered in ESPN's latest 30-for-30 documentary, Sole Man, which airs this evening. But we had more questions. As always, Sonny had the answers.

**

**You wore a lot of hats at Nike—you were a scout, an advisor, a marketer, and an intermediary. **

In this era, I don't think they'd let anyone do what I did. It was unique to me, to Nike and to the 1970's and 80's. It was a mom-and-pop operation. They weren't selling a lot of sneakers. There certainly weren't jerseys to sell and signature shoes. So what evolved was a mom-and-pop operation into one of the biggest corporations in the world. I can't explain it any other way other than it was timing and place. I was the guy on the ground floor.

When did you decide that you had enough? Was it a single moment or a culmination of events?

I think the single moment came for me when I started with Reebok and I had a five-year contract. I think the [NBA's] age limit was the first thing that pissed me off. Then Brandon Jennings had enough courage to leave and go overseas. He was forced there because of the collusion between the Players Association and the NBA and also between the NBA and college basketball. The NCAA thinks that they can trick people into believing that they weren't part and parcel to that. I was mad more about that. Then it evolved into O'Bannon and the NCAA using their likenesses. I had a thought about that when Chris Webber and the Fab Five were selling jerseys with their numbers on the back and Chris said his parents went up to buy it and it cost $150. It was the most obscene thing.

How important is it to get a kid involved with a brand early?

The company is going to get in early regardless. Obviously, it's nice if you have the school and he's playing in your stuff. Because now your representative can sit on campus like they do with Duke kids. Ninety nine percent of the Duke players in the past years have gone with Nike. I know that the guys at Kansas, all three of them went with Adidas. These things are part and parcel to you paying this school that much money to get close to the athletes. You're there every day. Owning the school and wearing the equipment gives them access 365 days a year and probably to their coach, because that coach is getting more money from the shoe company than the university he works for.

How much is that coach invested in preparing his players for the next level?

Some of these college coaches are the most selfish human beings I've ever met, but I'm not going to get into specifics. It's self-serving. The game is horrible. They take away the skills from the guys. You watch how these colleges play. They pass the ball ninety-nine times in a 35-second shot clock. What does that have to do with the greatness of the individual? If there was development happening, why aren't the seniors All-Stars? In this last generation, there are very few guys that went three or four years that have developed into anything more than a role player on a team. Staying has nothing to do with it. Enes Kanter didn't even play. Kyrie Irving only played about four or five games and he's brilliant.

Do these brands have a vested interest in keeping the age limit in place?

They're going to get millions of dollars when I sign them to a pro contract—why wouldn't I want them to stay there another year? They're on television and they become household names and we're getting them for nothing in college.

The NCAA obviously benefits from that, but how does the NBA?

They keep them extra years from earning their second contract. The second contract is the big contract. When they were coming out at seventeen years old, they were getting their second contract at 22 years old. Now they'll get it at 25. Now they've saved three years on maximizing their ability. It's a financial thing. Stern knew what he was doing. It wasn't that they were afraid to go in high school gyms. They were in there from 1993 to 2005. These guys talk in riddles and the public is blinded by it.

How much of this would be possible if many of these kids weren't poor and black?

It's easier if you're poor and black in America, isn't it? Because no one has that much understanding and sympathy toward that individual. I'm not black. I can't bleed black. But I understand prejudice and selfishness. Why don't they do the same thing to the golfer? Jordan Speith was young when he left Texas. Tennis players are young. Why can they go do whatever they want to do with no age stopping them? It's just football and basketball. Those sports are primarily African-Americans and minorities and the other ones are primarily white and affluent Europeans. It's so easy to understand. It's been that way forever. Look at the academic scandals. That shit down at North Carolina with the African-American Studies? That's a fraud. The NCAA likes to pretend they don't know what's happening. It doesn't even give some of these kids a great education. Forget about a degree. A degree means crap. It's the education. When you give these kids basket weaving, what trade are they gonna have? I'm just getting carried away because everyone's afraid to talk about race. It's obviously got something to do about race. Let's cut the bullshit.